MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

5/30 LeMahieu, Baker, Garza & more

Infielder DJ LeMahieu joined the Cubs from Double-A Tennessee on Monday, taking Jeff Baker’s spot on the roster. Baker was placed on the 15-day DL, retro to Saturday, because of a strained groin.

“The first thing we have to do is figure out how to spell his name,” Mike Quade said.

Quade said they couldn’t play short-handed without Baker and Reed Johnson, who was placed on the DL Sunday.

“I wanted to see ‘Bake’ hit the other day and I didn’t think he looked as comfortable as he needed to be,” Quade said. “He’d still suck it up for us and still pinch-hit but that leaves us in a pretty tough situation defensively.”

LeMahieu may be asked to fill in at first base if the Cubs need to give Carlos Pena a day off. That was Baker’s job. The other option is Blake DeWitt.

LeMahieu had been told Sunday he was going to be promoted to Triple-A Iowa, and then went fishing with friends. He got a phone call from player development director Oneri Fleita that there had been a change in plans and he was going to Chicago.

His father was in Milwaukee and drove down and his mother flew across the country from California to be at Wrigley on Monday.

“I dreamed about this as a kid, like everyone says,” LeMahieu said. “When you’re playing in Double-A, youknow a call might be coming but I don’t think you can ever prepare yourself for the actual call.”

* Matt Garza, on the DL with a right elbow contusion, threw on flat ground Monday and was expected to throw a side on Wednesday. Could he still be ready in St. Louis? “Not out of the question,” Quade said. “I’d like him back as quick as I can get him back.”

* Geovany Soto said he was able to test his leg in his two Minor League games. He was activated from the DL Sunday after being sidelined with a strained left groin.

“I ran for a little bit and whenever I hit the ball,” Soto said Monday. “It felt good. In my head, I was a little concerned. I didn’t want to [re-injur] it or feel it at all and I never did.”

* Players were wearing special Memorial Day caps.

* It was suddenly summer at Wrigley Field on Monday.

“I just like it hot and comfortable,” Quade said. “The hotter the better for me. I believe when the weather warms up, our offense will be better. It’s just a more comfortable situation. It’s good to see the sun.”

— Carrie Muskat

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1 Comment

What Quade never mentions is that the opposition’s offense will warm up too. Better is better no matter the weather. Pena needs more than a day off, more like the next 4 months. What was the reasoning behind spending 10 million on him again? Oh yes, NO reasoning just Hendry doing his thing. The weather was so WARM that Soriano pulls a quad? Go figure, I thought that shouldn’t happen to in shape players in warm weather, but Soriano is not just regressing, he’s old too. Now the organization needs to pull a Quade…from the dugout. He’s playing kids because injuries are forcing his hand not because he’s seen enough of Soriano’s defensive blunders, Fukodome’s lack of run production…will it take an injury to get somebody else at 3B replacing the counterproductive Ramirez? All 4 “RBI” positions are so lacking who can blame Quade if he benched all 4? Would that make Hendry look too inept? That’s how it appears.

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